Collecting and Analyzing Performance Monitor Data

The Performance Monitor utility enables administrators to collect data and view it in real time, or to collect data over a period and report on that data when collection has been stopped. For collecting a performance baseline, the latter approach is more appropriate. This feature, called Data Collection Sets, allows a number of counters and various other settings to be combined into a single collection activity. To create a data collector set for Lync Server 2013, perform the following steps:

1. Open the Performance Monitor utility, located in the Administrative Tools on a Windows Server.

2. Expand Data Collector Sets and select User Defined. Right-click and choose New, and then Data Collector Set. See Figure 13.3 for an example.

Figure 13.3. Creating a new data collector set.

3. On the Create New Data Collector Set screen, enter a name such as Lync Server Baseline, and select the option for Create Manually (Advanced). Figure 13.4 shows an example of this process. Click Next to continue.

Figure 13.4. Name the data collector set.

4. Choose the option to Create Data Logs and check the box for Performance Counter. Click Next to continue.

5. Add the performance counters outlined in the preceding section to the list, and choose a sample interval. Keep in mind, the smaller the sample interval, the larger the data logs will be. When you are finished, the list should look similar to that shown in Figure 13.5. Click Next to continue.

Figure 13.5. Data collection set counters selected.

6. On the next page, enter a path to save the data files. By default, these are stored on the system drive in a PerfLogs folder. If you have a separate disk to store these on, it is important to define this here. Click Finish to complete the wizard.

7. The new data collector set now shows in the user-defined list. If you want to apply other settings such as a schedule, or stop conditions based on disk space or duration, right-click on the collector set and choose Properties.

8. When you are ready to begin collecting data, right-click on the data collector set and choose Start. When the set is running, it displays a running symbol over the icon (which is green), as shown in Figure 13.6.

Figure 13.6. Example of a data collection set running.

1. Right-click on the data collection set and choose Stop.

2. Right-click on the data collection set and choose Latest Report. The report should automatically appear, enabling you to analyze the data collected. Use this screen to view a graph, or a numeric representation of each value. When you select each value, you are presented with the Last, Average, Minimum, and Maximum values for each counter. Compare these numbers with the acceptable values described in earlier sections to determine the health of your environment. See Figure 13.7 for a sample report.

Figure 13.7. Example of a Performance Monitor report.

In addition to the reports built into Performance Monitor, a community tool is available to analyze Performance Monitor data logs and provide feedback based on known thresholds. The tool, named Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL), reads performance logs generated by Performance Monitor, analyzes them, and then outputs an HTML report that attempts to call out critical areas based on known thresholds. Although this is not built specifically for Lync Server 2013, it does understand basic thresholds from Office Communications Server 2007 R2, as well as the Windows operating system thresholds. The goal of PAL is to automate the analysis work, and provide administrators with a clear definition of counters that show a problem with a system. Also, you can edit and add threshold files for models that PAL does not support. To download PAL, see the following link: http://pal.codeplex.com/.

Performance Monitor is a powerful tool. Lync administrators should be familiar with the counters available to them. Not only will this be helpful for planning purposes, but it has produced great results in troubleshooting scenarios as well.